Dual Wielding Again

Friday I studied the EJ forums for the latest news on DK dps specs after the patch goodies that dropped last week. Based on their posts, it seemed I had three options: DW frost, Unholy w/frost subspec, Unholy w/blood subspec (basically the same spec I already had). Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the spec I was running. I was getting good numbers, had my little ghoul buddy, my awesome AoE ….

I ran ICC10 Friday evening without changing my spec at all. The other DK’s spec was almost identical to mine, and we were neck and neck throughout the run. No complaints on the spec whatsoever. Heck, I got to down Rotface for the first time, and he even dropped a nice ring for me.

The PuG went so well, we scheduled a fresh run with the same group for next week. Based partly on the fact that if this run goes down, there will already be one unholy DK present, and partly on the fact that I might be just a wee bit keen to get back to DW, I went ahead and specced into EJ’s recommended DW frost build on Saturday. Heck, I can’t turn around in Dal without tripping over someone’s ghoul, so I figure there’s almost sure to be an unholy in any raid I’m in that has another dps DK, so the casters can still get their magic buff. And with improved icy talons stacking with windfury totem now …

Preliminary testing had me doing anywhere from 5.1 to 5.5k on a test dummy, depending on KM/Rime procs and having multiple targets to hit with it. Totally unscientific, especially since I didn’t bother to test my unholy spec before wiping it. But still, it certainly looks to be more than viable, although the only raid I got in over the weekend after switching was Naxx10, and that really doesn’t count for this. Kudos to the healers though, who kept me up on Patchwerk after the tank went down and I ended up ‘tanking’ him in dps spec and frost presence. Good times.

Now I just need another Frost Giant’s Cleaver, or that sexy, sexy mace off Festergut ….

I haven’t read the latest update on tanking, but from my understanding, DW frost was fine and is buffed even more now. You’ll hit harder with two slow dps weapons than you will with two defense weapons (since other than a couple of rare exceptions, those all come in fast speeds) but will generate higher threat with fast ones. I’ve seen people going both ways and it seems to come down to whether they know how to be a tank, more than what weapons they choose.

I’ve stuck with 2H frost for my own tank spec, mostly because a) I have a huuuuge array of 2H swords and axes falling in my lap and b) I like the relative flexibility of not having to spend points in two separate talents that are required to DW

DW Tanking is now awesome. If you’ve got extra weapons to throw the runeforges on, I’d definitely suggest giving it a whirl. I don’t do it, because I’ve only got Frost Giant’s Cleaver x2 and no other really decent 1-handers. I don’t want to have to change my runeforge everytime I change my role.

As for DW DPS, I love it and it is awesome. I didn’t know that IIT stacked with Windfury now…interesting.